SECRETARY OF state for Northern Ireland Owen Paterson has insisted he will not introduce savage cuts to the North’s block grant of £9 billion.
Mr Paterson said fears of significant cuts to the grant, or subvention, from the British government, had been exaggerated by other parties in the heat of an election. He promised a long-term policy of developing the North’s private sector while seeking efficiencies on costs.
UK public expenditure cuts of £6 billion (€7 billion) are planned in the immediate future. Prime Minister David Cameron’s comments on the need for less reliance on the North’s public sector had been “hijacked”, Mr Paterson claimed, and used for party political purposes.
“I have been repeating endlessly both publicly and privately for nearly three years . . . that for reasons we all understand, that Northern Ireland had a huge dependency on public spending.
“That is completely unsustainable particularly when the British state, the UK, is borrowing £300,000 per minute . . . It is irresponsible to do nothing; it is equally irresponsible to do anything drastic.
“There are all sorts of interesting lessons to be learned from the South on turning Northern Ireland into an enterprise zone and growing the private sector and, over what I suggested could be a period of at least 25 years, bringing down dependence on public spending,” he said.
The new government would “do nothing irresponsible . . . All parts of the UK are going to have to work as a team. We cannot go on borrowing £300,000 a minute.”
Every business in Britain and in Ireland has been forced to find economies, he said, in order to survive. “So the state can do the same.”
Mr Paterson, supporting devolution at Stormont and the recent transfer of policing and justice powers, said there was now a new role for the Northern secretary.
Praising previous British governments, both Conservative and Labour, as well as what he called “the enormous help from successive governments in Dublin and Washington”, he said his priorities lay with “moving Northern Ireland on to the mainstream economically and politically”.
Recognising the threat posed by dissident republicans, the new Northern secretary emphasised the need to maintain close cross-Border political and security co-operation.
He referred to his good relations with the Republic’s Ministers and with Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy, adding: “This dissident threat cannot be allowed to carry on and we will have to bear down on it. We endorse the very substantial package which the outgoing prime minister promised to the First Minister and Deputy First Minister on security.”
He hopes to travel to Dublin “very soon” to meet senior Government figures.
“I think those links are extremely important, as are continuing the links with Washington. I see that as part of the role. I think it is a key role, too, although huge amounts of confidence have been handed over to local politicians . . . for someone to go to the cabinet, the British cabinet once a week and really stick up for Northern Ireland.”
Mr Paterson has already been in touch with the leaders of the main Northern parties and insisted his relations are good with them despite his campaigning on behalf of Conservative and Unionist candidates during the Westminster election campaign.
George Jackson adds that Mr Paterson said yesterday the publication of the Saville Report into the Bloody Sunday killings in Derry almost 40 years ago was one of his immediate priorities.
The cost of the inquiry was almost £200 million (€233 million) and the publication of the 5,000-page report was delayed by last week’s British general election.
The Northern Secretary said he wanted the report to be published as soon as possible.
“It is a top priority for me. Now that the election is behind us we want to get this published as fast as possible. But it must be done in a sober and measured and sensible manner because there are implications here for the families of the victims and for the soldiers.”
Meanwhile, Northern Ireland’s Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness confirmed he had raised the issue of publishing the report in telephone conversations with Mr Cameron and Mr Paterson. “Both of them agreed with me that this should happen as speedily as possible. David Cameron was very clearly of the view that this was a priority and that it had to be dealt with sooner rather than later,” he said.
Foyle MP Mark Durkan also urged the Northern secretary to make the report available to the speaker of the House of Commons as soon as possible.